Children splash around in the heat. A Telegraph picture

Siliguri, Aug. 5: A maximum temperature of 35.8 degrees Celsius is just right at this time of the year, according to the Met office at North Bengal University.

For residents of the town, however, it felt like a heat wave. Especially since rain and overcast skies had kept the maximum temperature within 29 degrees from July 17 till August 2.

People preferred to stay indoors. The heat also restricted Friendship Day celebrations during the day as people waited for the sun to set. Even footfall at the markets on a Sunday was way below usual.

“The torrential downpour in north Bengal till about three days back may have caused landslides and flood, but it at least kept the heat away,” said Supratim Halder, a resident of Pradhannagar. “Now we are experiencing heat wave-like conditions in the middle of the monsoon.”

Hill Cart Road was mostly deserted in the afternoon. “The day shows were almost empty,” said Biswadip Dutta, owner of a cinema hall on Hill Cart Road.

The sudden change in weather has affected supply at the local vegetable market.

“For the last couple of days, vegetable arrivals at the Siliguri Regulated Market were not the usual,” said Tapan Saha, the president of the Fruits and Vegetables Commission Agents’ Association. “The fields have dried up over the last three days and the farmers could not get their crops ready.”

Met officials in Jalpaiguri said the weather would remain unchanged for the next 48 hours.

“A depression has formed in the Bay of Bengal and is expected to cross the coastal areas of Balasore in Orissa in the next 24 hours,” said T.K. Chakraborty, the director of the Regional Met Office, Jalpaiguri. “But this will not affect north Bengal. Only scattered rain is expected in North Dinajpur, Darjeeling and Jalpaiguri districts.”